Bristol Palin Gives Birth; Baby Has Funny Name

Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is a grandmother. The former Vice Presidential candidate's daughter, Bristol, gave birth on Sunday to a healthy baby boy, whom she named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston. Tripp, who name is destined to be mocked when he is in school, weighed in at seven pounds and four ounces. There are no reports if uncles Trigg and Track or aunts Willow or Piper have visited yet.

Marley & Me Climbs to Number One

Jennifer Aniston's dog tale, Marley & Me, raced to the top spot of the Christmas Box Office this weekend. The tear jerker scored a record breaking $14.75 million. Aniston's ex-husband Brad Pitt's film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button earned $11.8 million.

Eartha Kitt Dead at 81

Eartha Kitt has lost her battle with colon cancer, according to her publicist. The 81 year old entertainer had recently completed a PBS special, which is scheduled to air in February. Here is a 2006 clip of Miss Kitt singing Santa Baby.

From Our Home to Yours, Merry Christmas!

Lisa Rinna to Pose Nude for Playboy

Lisa Rinna, the wife of Harry Hamlin and former Dancing with the Stars contestant, will pose nude for an upcoming issue of Playboy. The 45 year old Rinna, who also starred in the NBC soap Days of Our Lives, confirmed the rumor to TV's Extra.

Hugh Jackman will Host Academy Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that Hugh Jackman has been tapped to host the 81st Annual Academy Awards.

Jackman, 40, currently starring on the big screen alongside Nicole Kidman in Australia, hosted the Tony Awards in 2005.

The Oscar telecast will air live on ABC on Sunday February 22. As always, we'll have live coverage right here.

Golden Globe Nominations

The nominatees for the 2009 Golden Globe Awards were announced today.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Leonardio DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Rebecca Hall, Vicky Christina Barcelona
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Frances McDormand, Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia!
Emma Thompson, Last Chance Harvey

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Javier Bardem, Vicky Christina Barcelona
Colin Farrell, In Bruges
James Franco, Pineapple Express
Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges
Dustin Hoffman, Last Chance Harvey

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
Everlasting Moments (Sweden/Denmark)
Gomorrah (Italy)
I’ve Loved You So Long (France)
Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Ralph Fiennes, The Duchess
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road

NBC's Fall Schedule: All Leno, All the Time

Last winter we reported that FOX, ABC, and Sony Television all courting Jay Leno in hopes of snatching up the late night ratings king when NBC installs Conan O'Brien as the new host of the Tonight Show in June. Well, NBC shot back, and in a BIG way.

NBC announced yesterday that Leno will be on the NBC primetime schedule in 2009. EVERY NIGHT. Leno will own NBC's 10:00pm hour, airing every Monday through Friday. Basically, he'll be moving his late night show into prime time. NBC will save a ton by airing Leno as opposed to scripted shows. If this works out well, watch for CBS and ABC to ditch their 10:00 slots in favor of a five night strip program.

Soap Stuff

Back in April, we ran an interview with some of the best and brightest soap bloggers around and we asked them about the current state of soaps. You can read it all here. Meanwhile, something I stumbled upon caught my eye today. It seems the recession has hit the soap world. Yes, Susan Lucci is being forced to take a pay cut. And Deidre Hall has been let go from Days of Our Lives. Even legendary soap scribe Agnes Nixon has had her salary cut (twice!). Check it out here.

Meanwhile, I checked out the witty and wonderful Snark Weighs In column written by Snark himself, which always has consistently hard-hitting and humorous commentary on the world of daytime. Trust me, its not easy to balance hard hitting and humor. Tried it. Failed. Tried it again. Gave up. Anyway, Snark's column led me to yet another blog, and this one is a doozy. A former soap fan who gave up on soaps years ago is doing the unheard of: he's going to watch every soap, one week at a time, until he has watched an entire week of every soap on the air -- just to see if any of them can bring him back as a fan. He's blogging about it here. I have a concern about this: There are eight soaps on the air, people. What happens if he likes them all? He'll never leave his house! We'll be sending him pizzas and takeout Chinese to keep him alive. I'll be keeping tabs on his blog to see if he gets hungry.

Grammy Award Nominees

Album of the Year
Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Ne-Yo - Year Of The Gentleman
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Radiohead - In Rainbows

Record of the Year
Adele - “Chasing Pavements”
Coldplay - “Viva La Vida”
Leona Lewis - “Bleeding Love”
M.I.A. - “Paper Planes”
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - “Please Read The Letter”

Best New Artist
Adele
Duffy
Jonas Brothers
Lady Antebellum
Jazmine Sullivan

Song of the Year
“American Boy” - William Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, John Stephens, Estelle Swaray & Kanye West, songwriters (Estelle Featuring Kanye West)
“Chasing Pavements” - Adele Adkins & Eg White, songwriters (Adele)
“I’m Yours” - Jason Mraz, songwriter (Jason Mraz)
“Love Song” - Sara Bareilles, songwriter (Sara Bareilles)
“Viva La Vida” - Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, & Chris Martin, songwriters (Coldplay)

Best Rock Album
Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Kid Rock - Rock N Roll Jesus
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
Metallica - Death Magnetic
The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely

Best Rock Song
Bruce Springsteen - “Girls In Their Summer Clothes”
Radiohead - “House Of Cards”
Death Cab for Cutie - “I Will Possess Your Heart ”
Kings of Leon - “Sex On Fire”
Coldplay - “Violet Hill”

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
AC/DC - “Rock ‘N Roll Train”
Coldplay - “Violet Hill”
Eagles - “Long Road Out Of Eden”
Kings of Leon - “Sex On Fire”
Radiohead - “House Of Cards”

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance
John Mayer - “Gravity” from Where The Light Is — Live In Los Angeles
Paul McCartney - “I Saw Her Standing There” from Amoeba’s Secret
Bruce Springsteen - “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” from Magic
Eddie Vedder - “Rise”
Neil Young - “No Hidden Path” from Chrome Dreams II

Best Pop Vocal Album
Sheryl Crow - Detours
Duffy - Rockferry
Eagles - Long Road Out Of Eden
Leona Lewis - Spirit
James Taylor - Covers

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals
Alicia Keys & John Mayer - “Lesson Learned” ”
Madonna, Justin Timberlake & Timbaland - “4 Minutes”
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - “Rich Woman”
Rihanna & Maroon 5 - “If I Never See Your Face Again”
Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown - “No Air”

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
Coldplay - “Viva La Vida”
Eagles - “Waiting In The Weeds”
Gnarls Barkley - “Going On”
Maroon 5 - “Won’t Go Home Without You”
OneRepublic - “Apologize”

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
Adele - “Chasing Pavements”
Sara Bareilles - “Love Song”
Duffy - “Mercy”
Leona Lewis - “Bleeding Love”
Katy Perry- “I Kissed A Girl”
Pink - “So What”

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
Kid Rock - “All Summer Long”
John Mayer - “Say”
Paul McCartney - “That Was Me”
Jason Mraz - “I’m Yours”
Ne-Yo “Closer”
James Taylor - “Wichita Lineman”

Best Rap Album
Jay-z - American Gangster
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
Nas - Nas
T.I. - Paper Trail

Best Rap Song
“Lollipop” - D. Carter, S. Garrett, D.Harrison, J. Scheffer & R. Zamor, songwriters (Lil Wayne Featuring Static Major) “Low” - T. Dillard, M. Humphrey & T-Pain, songwriters (Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain)
“Sexual Eruption” - Calvin Broadus, S. Lovejoy & D. Stewart, songwriters (Snoop Dogg)
“Superstar” - Lupe Fiasco & Soundtrakk, songwriter (Lupe Fiasco Featuring Matthew Santos)
“Swagga Like Us” - D. Carter, S. Carter, Clifford Harris, & Kanye West, songwriters (M. Arulpragasam, N. Headon, M. Jones, J. Mellor, T. Pentz, P. Simonon, songwriters) (Jay-Z & T.I. Featuring Kanye West & Lil Wayne)

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Estelle Featuring Kanye West - “American Boy”
Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain - “Low”
John Legend & Andre 3000 - “Green Light”
Lil Wayne Featuring T-Pain - “Got Money”
Lupe Fiasco Featuring Matthew Santos - “Superstar”

Best Alternative Music Album
Beck - Modern Guilt
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Radiohead - In Rainbows

Best R&B Album
Eric Benet - Love & Life
Boyz II Men - Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA
Al Green - Lay It Down
Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson
Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It

Best Electronic/Dance Album
Brazilian Girls - New York City
Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Cyndi Lauper - Bring Ya To The Brink
Kylie Minogue - X
Moby - Last Night
Robyn - Robyn

Best Hard Rock Performance
Disturbed - “Inside The Fire”
Judas Priest - “Visions”
The Mars Volta - “Wax Simulacra”
Mötley Crüe - “Saints Of Los Angeles”
Rob Zombie - “Lords Of Salem”

Best Metal Performance
DragonForce - “Heroes Of Our Time”
Judas Priest - “Nostradamus”
Metallica - “My Apocalypse”
Ministry - “Under My Thumb”
Slipknot - “Psychosocial”

The Grammy Awards will be televised on CBS on February 8.

Pain, Agony, and Rosie O'Donnell

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, Rosie Live was on TV and I realized I'd made a horrific mistake by not renting a movie.

There was a time I actually liked Rosie O'Donnell. She was funny and harmless, and she never bothered me. I enjoyed seeing her on talk shows and then she got her very own talk show. For years, Rosie was the "Queen of Nice" and enjoyed huge ratings success and several Emmys for her talk show. Then, she started to become a bit too opinionated and made her guests feel a bit... awkward.



Rosie's ratings were still great and when she decided to fold her talk show, fans waited for her to make some sort of return to television. Next up for O'Donnell was The View. No longer the sole host of a celebrity gab-fest, O'Donnell let loose her opinions on panel of The View, and often clashed with guests and her own co-hosts. Her feud with Donald Trump was embarrassing for both of them, but her final blow out with Elisabeth Hasselbeck was ultimately her undoing. Whether or not O'Donnell left the show on her own terms or was asked to leave early doesn't really matter. The truth of the matter is that I'm sure I'm not the only person who agreed with most of her opinions, but was repelled by her loud and arrogant way of getting her point across.



Flash forward a couple of years and NBC decides to give Rosie her own prime time variety show. What. A. Nighmare. Did anyone really think Liza Minelli would draw in the desired 18-49 viewer demographic? Maybe Clay Aiken would bring in the young viewers? The show brought in a whopping 1.9 rating in the desired 18-49 demo. The show tied with the already canceled Pushing Daisies for the lowest rated show of the night. I'm quite certain this "test pilot" will never be seen or heard again from NBC. The network should have remembered that their cable sister, MSNBC was set to give Rosie a prime time talk show last year - and quickly decided against it.

We're On Our Way Back...

Thank you to everyone who emailed and asked us to bring The Chronicles of von Klapp back from hiatus. No one ever expected that kind of outpouring. And so...

Yes, we're coming back! You'll find us in a slightly new form - instead of daily posts, you'll find two to three posts per week, but the articles will be larger and more in-depth. We hope you enjoy our new format. Thanks again for reading!

Thank You

This is the last post of The Chronicles of von Klapp.
For all of those who took the time to read our ramblings for the past year, we thank you.

Scary Face

Vivica A. Fox's face may be mostly covered by her stunner shades, however we are still scared. Very, very scared. What? Is? That? On? Her? Head?

Chihuahua Remains Box Office Gold

Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua took the top spot at the box office this weekend, for the second straight week. Chihuahua earned $17.5 million, coming in ahead of Quarantine at $14.2 million. Third place went to Body of Lies, the Russell Crowe/Leonardo DiCaprio feature, which only brought in $13.1 million. Fourth place belonged to Eagle Eye, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist came in fifth.

McCain Returns to Letterman

After weeks of one sided on-air feud, John McCain will appear on CBS's Late Show starring David Letterman. McCain was scheduled to appear on September 24th, when he suddenly suspended his campaign to return to Washington and work on the economic crisis. He bowed out of the Late Show appearance, but instead of returning immediately to Washington, he was interviewed by Katie Couric. Letterman saw it as a snub, and began to poke fun of McCain. However, all is now fine between the two, as McCain will appear on the show Thursday.

More Joe Zaso News

Joe Zaso will begin shooting his new production, Braincell in Liverpool this January with Barricade star Raine Brown and UK actress Eileen Daly. It will be written and directed by Alex Birrell (Darkness Surrounds Roberta's director of photography). It tells the tale of bizarre experiments conducted at a creepy university in Liverpool. Zaso will play an off-kilter doctor along with Raine Brown who will play his estranged niece.

In February, Zaso and Daly will both appear in a new horror film to be shot in Maine. Beauty is Only Skin Deep from writer Christopher Osgood and produced by North Bay Productions. Imagine Sunset Boulevard and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane by way of David Cronenberg.

We can't wait!

Click here for a special Halloween horror DVD sale.

Hey Sarah Palin

Hilarious.